What Polls Say About Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock 1 Week Before Georgia's Election

There's just a little over a week until Georgia's unprecedented double Senate runoff elections and polls show a tight race between Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock.

More than 2 million residents have already cast their ballots for the runoffs, according to the early-voting data tracker Georgia Votes. The January 5 contests—Loeffler vs. Warnock and David Perdue vs. Jon Ossoff—will determine which party has majority control of the U.S. Senate in the next Congress.

A FiveThirtyEight analysis averaging the polls that have been conducted since the November general election, Warnock was shown ahead of Loeffler by 0.6 points on December 24. The Democrat had 48.2 percent support compared with Loeffler's 47.6 percent support.

One survey from InsiderAdvantage and FOX 5 Atlanta released Wednesday found that Loeffler was trailing Warnock by 2 percentage points, though 4 percent of those polled said they remained undecided on who to support.

Warnock was also slightly ahead in a poll conducted by Reconnect Research in partnership with Probolsky Research. The survey of over 1,000 likely voters found Warnock had 43 percent support. Loeffler wasn't far behind with 42 percent support. But 15 percent of respondents were undecided about the race.

After the November election, Republicans are set to control at least 50 seats in the next Senate. Democrats will have 46 seats but two independent senators caucus with the party, bringing their total vote power to 48.

If Democrats win both Senate races next month, party control of the Senate would be split 50-50. It would then be up to Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to cast any tie-breaking votes that occur, essentially giving Democrats control.

In November, Warnock bested Loeffler by a little more than 343,000 votes but neither candidate passed the 50 percent threshold needed to clinch victory. Warnock received 32.9 percent of the vote compared to Loeffler's 25.9 percent.

The high-stakes of the runoffs have prompted high-profile party figures to stump for their respective candidates in the Peach State. Vice President Mike Pence has held several "Defend the Majority" rallies urging Republicans to vote, stating Perdue and Loeffler are the "last line of defense" against the Democrats' "radical agenda."

Both President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have held events in the state this month. The two were the first Democratic candidates to win Georgia since 1992, flipping the state blue after it supported President Donald Trump in 2016.

"I am here to say that the decision you make, the work that you put into it, will impact people who you may never meet, people who may never know your names. But because of what you have done and are prepared to do, their lives will forever be better," Harris said at a drive-in rally in Columbus last week.